Monday, May 21, 2012

CMS has provided a list of the teaching teams that won grants for classroom iPads and training. Groups of educators competed for a share of the $3.5 million in county money Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools had available to provide the digital boost.

The classroom iPads, which follow the presentation of iPads to all school administrators in January, are part of the district's push to provide wireless internet access and digital learning opportunities in all schools. The original plan was a districtwide "bring your own technology" rollout when schools reopen in August, but CMS has slowed its approach because of leadership turnover and the need to prepare.

(I'm wading through a week's worth of emails after taking vacation, so I know there's a lot more going on in the world of education. Keep me posted on what you all know.)

Ann, did CMS tell you how many each team received? And/or how many iPads were awarded in total? Just curious how many were in this initiative, as compared to the 858 given to administrators across the district.

Christine, here's what CMS has said on totals (it doesn't add up how many are going to teachers): "The 970 Innovation for Transformation grant applications submitted by professional learning communities in 153 schools have been reviewed, and the scoring committee has awarded grants to 73 schools. Each grant will provide an iPad for each member of the PLC and a classroom set of 10 iPads for each classroom teacher in the PLC. A total of 3,970 iPads will be available for student use."

2:09 Great fact as CMS does not know either. Since BYOT is delayed at least a year. When Mr. Murri left he was probably the only one with a clue as how to distribute out to the classroom the technology. The other school who dont receive these will be on a time delay of course. I just hope the schools that get these are diverse and through out the county district wide. I am sure at some point in August this year they will let teachers know how to use these in the classrooms. Another CMS FUMBLE. Keith W. Hurley

4:04, did you scroll past the first page? Central Zone is only Title I schools, so there are no suburban schools there. But however you define suburban, some of the winners in the other zones surely qualify.

For what it's worth, a significantly smaller percentage of Central Zone (Title I) elementaries were awarded iPads than elementaries in any other zone. I don't know what that means, but it doesn't appear that anything was "fixed" in their favor.

I give great cheer to those that qualified for the advancement in technology and a chance at a competitive future for our youth. I do not however like having to fight for my job again while I teach 40 students. This is a competitive and fundemental problem. I teach twice as many students (35-40) as my peers and cohorts (17-25). I receive the same pay ,and mostly less with the new bonus and project lift as my peers and cohorts. This is a flawed system and one that does not bode well with any that are forward thinkers.I would only ask to be more equitable to myself as a teacher and taxpayer. The unrest will come soon enough with our great city hosting the DNC. I fear the unrest will continue with all parties going forward.

For those of us that can't get past CMS Windows XP, or no "Smart Boards", or have to buy our own technology just to show a DVD to reinforce learning this is great news! Maybe CMS will compare EOG/EOC scores to the have-not staff members in another round of Inquisition dismissal. Even "Do as I say" is continually ignored when rules are discarded, grants were entirely bogus and PLC is another acronym for Perennially Left Cold.

Not sure what Anon 4:04 considers suburban, but Ardrey Kell, Providence, Butler, Huntersville, Davidson, JV Washam, Torrence Creek.....and on and on. Before you go all "conspiracy against the suburbs" look at the complete file and get enlightened.

For teachers who receive the iPads there's a wealth of blogs cataloging the daily use, and effectiveness, of iPads.

If you've got an iPad, download the free Zite app and plug in Education as one of the topics and you'll find countless sites with applicable information about iPad use (and technology in general) in education.

That's the inherent strength of the iPad, besides being rather easy to use, it's also extraordinarily easy to do research and figure out effective ways of using it.

Jeff, herein lies the one big sardine to this whole thing. The teacher only gets 10 ipads for the class. Only urban classrooms have that few students in a class. What do you do with the other schools that have 20 students, or 30 students or 40 students or 50 students in a class?

These iPads are a complete waste of time outside a computer technology class.

As usual, CMS does the stupid thing and puts the cart before the horse. CMS has virtually no infrastructure to handle technology, as has been pointed out over the past several months nor any directive(s) as to how these iPads are to be used to actually TEACH kids.

I've been in California working with one of the largest companies in the country for the past two weeks, whose HQ is smack in the middle of Silicon Valley, yet my privately owned company has more up to date technology than they do.

I'm having to download data - I should say dumb-down data to Office 97-2003 so they can open it.

Beware folks. The next black hole in CMS will be technology. They will be screaming for as much money to dump into that as they scream for building money....

Tell me again how much money we have unspent from the LAST bond referendum?

Here’s a story that is similar to the foray into iPad World and was told to me recently by a retired CMS employee.

Back in ancient times there was a new school superintendent by the name of John Murphy. His mission was to bring CMS out of the backwoods. One of his first steps was replacing the single dial telephone in each school with several phones that had the modern advancement of buttons and the ability to receive multiple lines.

Hard to imagine.

You want to think that with all the parents and all their issues, that schools would have always had lots of phones. Nope, they just made do….and the parents getting the busy signals just had to keep dialing.

Telephones, PCs, even Driver Ed cars. Schools are never going to have what they are calling 1:1. It’s too expensive to maintain. Sharing is going to be the rule….which ain’t bad……because Lord knows that’s a skill we all could use until our last day on Earth when each of us will finally get our own individual terminal…..a coffin.

Can anyone enlighten me as to how Kindergarten teachers will utilize 10 iPads in their classrooms? Classrooms where there are at least 18-22 children?

I honestly have no idea how you'd use these, and wonder if anyone else has a clue.

And to Jeff Wise's comments on the researching capabilities of the iPads... should the teachers be the only ones to research this and figure out ways to use them in their classrooms? Since this was "kind of" a CMS initiative, doesn't CMS bear SOME kind of responsibility to train and suggest methods for teachers to use? Because right now, it seems the teachers are doing a lot of extra work (training for grant writing, writing the grants, and now learning what to do with them, all on their own time?) for no extra compensation. Again.

And I'd love to know how many schools' PTAs/PTOs have purchased iPad carts for their schools. Does CMS have any idea? I can name at least two schools that have made these purchases this year. Can anyone else add to that list?

Bolyn, let me give you another story of "sharing" in CMS. Late in the 1990's, a suburban HS had a need to update its microscopes for teaching an advance biology class. It was deemed "equity" to instead, split that purchase and half of the microscopes went to an urban HS. Since no students signed up to take this class at the urban HS, the microscopes went unused for 3 years and then went to the "worn" equipment auction.

So the suburban students got slighted needed equipment, had to end up sharing microscopes and ended up with nearly unproductive class due to the inability to keep students engaged in the classroom.

Bolyn, I am not sure when the last time was that you were in the classroom , but todays children dont share anything. I am sure your grand kids do share as they are the best CMS kids on the block. That makes them a minority amongst the others. I am also sure when you went to school back in 1930 they did not have this problem either. My question is since the Morgan's were not born yet who protected you?

Jeff Wise, I am sure "bloging" is great , BUT the iPADS for learning in the class room must be from a effective avenue. Across the board all 149 schools must have them and all kids in the classroom must have them. Much like the book you and I were given each year and responsible to hand in at the end of the year. They were equal for each so both students have the outlet as a resource. We both know that classrooms today have alot more than 10 kids in each room. CMS surely made that happen when they closed the schools last year what a great job. Fire the teachers , close the schools , cut pay awesome ! Its a foot print for success in any business.

So we pitched a major client recently with just iPads. The presentation was created solely to be viewed on the device.

Our project manager took 3 iPads with him to present to about a dozen people associated with our client. The client raved about the presentation and it appears we will get to work with them for years to come.

Point: multiple people can view an iPad screen and get the same value from it. Multiple students can work on an iPad and get the same value from the lesson plan. It does not necessarily have to be 1-to-1.

To Wiley's point - you're right, technology is but a tool and not a panacea. Technology alone will not solve our educational ills, but it can help a segment of students learn more efficiently and comprehensively.

To Christine's point - yes, CMS should set up training sessions for the teachers and guide them towards best practices. My not so well stated point was that teachers don't necessarily need to have CMS tell them how to use the devices.

If the teachers had the gumption to write the grant proposal, they probably have the initiative to do their research to figure out how to best use the iPads.

Ideally, CMS will create a user group for these teachers to gather feedback and allow the teachers to share their experiences to help make the use of the iPads more effective.

Christine, PLCs were defined as teachers saw fit. They could have been defined as a grade level, a subject area, etc.

Teachers were led to believe by a FAQ posted on Instructional Technology website that the grant would be awarded based on most effective proposal written for how the Ipads would be used to transform the educational experience and further the School Improvement goals. The FAQ expressly stated there was no cap on how many PLC's per school could win the grant.

When the initial $10 million was scaled back to $3.5 Instructional Technology changed the selection criteria and capped it at one PLC per school but did not notify any teachers of the change or revise the FAQ.

As a result, many teachers wrote very effective grants but were not awarded Ipads due to the changes.

This technology is changing the way students are learn in a few districts across the country. Teachers who are creative about grouping can get around the 10 per class number (or can team up with other members of the PLC and have a rotation system). It's up to the teachers to figure out how to make it a worthwhile investment.

Hopefully we can continue to invest in cutting edge technology and increase motivation and focus of our students. Smart boards have done wonders for student focus in many of our classrooms and tablets are probably the next wave.

The original iPad grant proposal did include extensive training and support for the teachers. Here's the memo that went out to teachers (but as some have noted, there may have been changes since then):http://obspapertrail.blogspot.com/2012/03/10-million-ipad-competition-for.html

Jeff, I think we agree that CMS needs technology in the hands of "all students" in some form. Some parents will be providing this in August 2013 as the delay was kept a secret after Murri left for Atlanta. The technology roll out must be uniform in its offering or the district will never control it. If we do not have a common use the kids are going to walk around like some adults do downtown looking at screens as they walk into traffic. guess who wins that battle? I dont want my kids emailing friends or watching You Tube of the latest band while at school. I also want to know when CMS is going to delay a program that they want parents to spends thousands on for kids. This did not happen in this event until I notifed the press. It certainly is not away for them to build TRUST that word that came out of the $100,0000 study CMS did last year. Keith W. Hurley

Hello from Pittsburgh Public Schools. We are also being run by Broad and Gates. The iPad issue really jumped out at me. PPS is doing the same thing and it makes no sense. Does Broad have special interest with Apple now?

Here is Pittsburghs blog thread regarding this baffling purchase. We are a much smaller district than CMS.

Ann what the main article is missing is the explanation about AP iPads. Administrator iPads all come with 4g wireless, while the teachers and student iPads come with none. Another issue you really ought to research is what fisher eluded to, the wireless networks can only handle 20 devices......some buildings have over 500 kids in them....

I can already see this is creating dissension. Even if you are in a school that received the ipads, a small minority of classes will get them. The majority will be unhappy and feel slighted. Same thing with the students as only a fraction of the kids in a class can use them at one time. Would have been better to give ALL teachers one then let them share information and ideas with ALL their students.

as I've said before and I'll say again.. you want to see an effective use of technology and the proper way to use it in classrooms, just travel up 77 to Mooresville. A 1:1 district for 4 years that has been receiving national recognition.